Bitexion wrote:I still want a M12 or Xpander, but I don't wanna pay alot for it. And that cryptic interface will probably work more against me than with me anyways.

mmm... Everyone thinks that (I thought that), but it's really not crytpic... you just sort of fly around it picking a component, picking something to modulate it. There's no more than 2 pages to each section, and there really isn't a lot of info on each page. The editing isn't the problem at all, it's getting your head around what can do what to what, and what IS doing what to what (which is like any matrix-based synth). Things like the tracking generator still slightly boggle me... but if you were just making standard sounds, it's no different than the SQ-80 (sans single data slider, with the addition of numeric keys to enter values). In some sort of effort to save my knobs, I actually mostly enter values numerically.

I think those are a really underrated feature. One of my biggest bones of contention with a lot of synths is mapping things like LFO speed to the keyboard. For a good string sound using a lot of PWM, I like having a very slow LFO rate at the bottom of a keyboard and an almost audio-rate speed at the very top end. Since most synths don't allow (or imperfectly implement) mapping rate to key position, I think this is a tremendously underrated feature, especially since with a tracking generator it need not be a linear line, but can be turned into a semi-exponential curve.

To answer the original question though: I've not owned either the Xpander/M12 or the Andromeda, but I think both would make a fine choice. In my heart though, the Xpander. It seems like such a high water mark in design and programming potential.

Well, I did it... after months and months of humming and hawing, an andromeda will shortly be on its way! I finally found a (relatively) new one at a price I couldn't let pass. The Xpander will have to battle with the andromeda for title of supreme analog in my studio... the MKS80 (even with the mpg80) already lost this fight, so it will be interesting to see how the Andy matches up. Loser will most likely be shown the door...

Oh you'll love the Andy to bits once you get the interface under your skin. It's not a difficult synth to program at all, even though it has 70 knobs on the front panel to scare people with

But give it some time, don't just judge it on presets. No synth should be judged on presets. They are just there to make customers go "woooo" when they press a single key in the shop.

Strip a simple patch down to the bare basics (single VCO, single filter, no effects, "gate" envelopes (no attack, full sustain lvl) and modulations), and store it as "init patch". Then you'll have an easy starting point always.